Keppel FELS delivers eleventh jackup to Mexico

SINGAPORE -- Keppel FELS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine, has delivered a KFELS B Class jackup rig to Pemex.

The rig was named Kukulkan by Lady Sponsor Mrs Valerie Pahl-Hernandez, the wife of Gustavo Hernandez Garcia, director general of Pemex Exploration & Production, at a ceremony at Keppel FELS.

Kukulkan is the second jackup that Keppel has built directly for Pemex. It will join its sister rig, Yunuen, which was delivered earlier this year, and another nine jackup rigs that Pemex has chartered from drilling contractors for deployment in offshore Mexico. Keppel also has another seven KFELS B Class jackup rigs under construction for Mexican companies.

The KFELS B Class jackup is designed to operate in water depths of up to 400 ft and drill to depths of 30,000 ft.

Developed by Keppel’s Offshore Technology Development (OTD), the KFELS B Class jackup is equipped with an advanced and fully-automated high capacity rack and pinion jacking system, and self-positioning fixation system. It has accommodation with full amenities for 120 persons.

Garcia said, “Pemex E&P is committed to grow as an E&P company by retaining both our existing reserves and exploring in a variety of new areas. In shallow waters, there are a lot of prospective resources waiting to be discovered and we need high performance jackup rigs like Kukulkan to maximize our returns. Just two weeks ago, another rig, Yunuen, was put into operation by Mexican President, H.E. Enrique Pena Nieto. With Kukulkan soon to follow, we are strongly progressing towards our goal to increase oil production.”